Tick Tock

It's time for school. Time for work. Time to check the schedule. Time to lose 10 pounds, to gain perspective, to slow down, to rush. Time for cleaning floors and patching leaks, for going through that pile of mail. Time for a haircut. Time for a change.

Time to call home.

Time to say sorry.

Time to make time for all the things there is no time for.

(What time is it for you?)

Urban Moon(s)

I was looking through my files last night and found this image from late September. I liked the way the full moon was upstaged by Mission Station's moon-like clock...

The moonlight breaks upon the city's domes,
And falls along cemented steel and stone,
Upon the grayness of a million homes,
Lugubrious in unchanging monotone.
Upon the clothes behind the tenement,
That hang like ghosts suspended from the lines,
Linking each flat to each indifferent,
Incongruous and strange the moonlight shines.

There is no magic from your presence here,
Ho, moon, sad moon, tuck up your trailing robe,
Whose silver seems antique and so severe
Against the glow of one electric globe.

Go spill your beauty on the laughing faces
Of happy flowers that bloom a thousand hues,
Waiting on tiptoe in the wilding spaces,
To drink your wine mixed with sweet drafts of dews.

--Claude McKay

Oh, the Doo Dah day...

It was just a quick Metro ride from South Pas to Pasadena yesterday morning. Madcap fun filled the streets as the Doo Dah Parade made its way through Old Town. Check out the silliness on my overflow blog here.

Almost four o' clock across from Mission Station

I've lived in Los Angeles for 20 years. From Santa Monica to Silver Lake the one consistency for me has always been the frenzied pace. It's a swirl of chaotic quests for the newest and fuel-injected launches toward the fastest and always, without fail: traffic, traffic, traffic.

And yet here in downtown South Pasadena -- even leaning toward rush hour -- it's as facile and peaceful as Mayberry. Yeah, I know, nearby the big city coils and teems. But it's nice to catch your breath, check the clock, and have a little time to spare.